Not because we were competing against them, but because it was a kind of reengineering of classic old organization models. It’s really irritating, as agencies’ speeches are around innovation, creativity. But when it comes from an an external player, it’s not really well perceived.

Not all agencies react like that; but for these agencies, there should be a quick move: innovation is not a threat; it can be an extension of their daily businesses.

There’s a big controversy these days in Social Media Marketing between the huge business opportunities and the fact that the more consumers are digitally empowered, the less they want to release their personal data and privacy to third parties.

TNS Digital confirms this trend, demonstrating that not so many Social Networks users are open to brands.

In this attention economy, the competition has never been that strong. A competition that not only happens in a virtual world but truly in real life: local stores are progessively implementing Social Media tactics; mash-ups are now in-store (see H&M + Lanvin former collection).

Marc Menesguen, Managing Director of Strategic Marketing for L’Oréal has recently declared for Cap Gemini that “The difference between the traditional model and the new one that is emerging, is a difference between positioning and movement.Today it’s not enough to think about brand positioning (…) the consumer
is even more central to our strategy. Whereas in the mass media model, typically centered on television, everyone received the same message, with digital media we can design much more targeted marketing”.

Consistency, tiny groups, dynamic story instead of static positioning, fusion of online + “offline” contact areas…there are inferred new practices that also reveal a new marketing paradigm. The goal is no longer to make a consumer enter a classic marketing funnel. The idea is first to be relevant enough to shape a weak link, a real “hyphen” between the brand and the consumer.

Because the consumer is the real shareholder of a company’s reputation, live-growing or live-dismantling it, there’s a need to analyze and develop an hyphenated approach of marketing.

This is the aim of this white-paper called “The H-Word: towards a new social marketing approach”. It’s not a final doctrine nor a comprehensive methodology. It’s more a call to conversation, sharing-knowledge, debate. Feel free to engage the debate.